by Hallie Harvey
The Stony Brook Seawolves (16-2) advance to the NCAA quarterfinals after their 20-8 win over Rutgers (7-9) in the second round on Sunday afternoon at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium. Stony Brook will play the #1 seed, University of North Carolina, May 22 at noon.
SBU last made it to the NCAA quarterfinals in 2018 where they lost to Boston College in overtime. This time, the Seawolves head into the Elite Eight for the third time in the past four NCAA tournaments.
Stony Brook beat Towson (9-10) 14-8 in the first round on Friday and kept even more of a distance in points against the Scarlet Knights. 12 of SBU’s 20 points involved senior attacker Taryn Ohlmiller, with 8 assists alone. Ohlmiller totaled a career 408 points on Sunday, becoming second in program history— only behind her older sister Kylie who holds the record at 498. Ohlmiller and teammate, Ally Kennedy, each scored 4 goals against Rutgers.
Rutgers fell behind quickly into the first half, letting up eight unanswered points with only 7:21 remaining. Just before the end of the half, the Scarlet Knights scored two consecutive goals by Marin Hartshorn and Cassidy Spilis, respectively.
It wasn’t long before graduate student and Eastport native, Kaeli Huff, brought the score to 11-4 going into halftime. Huff scored a career high of six goals, which is also the second most in an NCAA tournament in program history.
Huff mentions her transition to the Seawolves this year after playing her undergraduate career as a USC Trojan: “I’m so grateful I had such an easy transition coming to SBU. I was definitely nervous coming in, but the girls could not be more welcoming and Coach [Joe] Spallina is awesome. He’s truly all of our biggest fans and I’m so lucky I am getting the opportunity to play for him for my last year.”
Stony Brook defense was able to hold off the Scarlet Knights, allowing up only four points in each half. In the end, the Seawolves won by 12 points and hope to keep this momentum going into next weekend.
“I think the energy lately has been really great,” Huff said about preparing to face off against the Tar Heels in quarterfinals. “This team as a whole has this common goal and getting somewhere the program has never been and I think that’s something that motivates us everyday. Especially now knowing that any game can be your last is something that I think has helped us piece together great games all over the field from defense to offense.”
